1. Field
A touch screen device and operating method thereof are disclosed herein.
2. Background
Recently, most portable information terminals have been provided as intelligent or multi-functional terminals that can process a variety of multimedia information, such as music, games, photographs, and videos, rather than provide only a specific single function. Further, each of the portable information terminals is provided with a variety of key buttons capable of easily selecting and executing the aforementioned functions. However, since portable information terminals are small enough to be easily carried, there are difficulties in configuring a portable information terminal capable of providing all the key buttons for executing the functions.
Therefore, the latest digital portable information terminals allow a user to more conveniently input and process necessary information by employing a touch screen as a user interface. That is, since the size of a display should be maximized within a limited size thereof, the data input is generally implemented as a touch screen with which a finger or stylus pen is used.
In this way, touch screen input, which considerably increases user convenience in comparison with inputting user information through conventional key buttons, is widely employed as the user information input device and recently has been applied to most portable information terminals. Since the touch screen method allows all processes for performing specific functions to be executed on a touch screen after power is turned on, the functions of the portable information terminal can be sufficiently performed even though no input buttons are provided.
However, icons displayed on the touch screen should be selected to use the portable information terminal. At this time, it is difficult to touch a desired icon with a finger if the size of the touch screen of the portable information terminal is small. That is, this is not a problem for portable information terminals having large screens, however, there is a high probability that finger touch errors will be generated where the portable information terminals are small in size, such as MP3 players, portable multimedia players (PMPs), and personal digital assistants (PDAs). In other words, in the case of a portable information terminal having a small screen, icons are densely arranged on the screen of the portable information terminal. Therefore, it is inconvenient for a user to select and input necessary information. Further, it is contradictory to the fact that a touch screen is employed as an input means to improve the user convenience.